Bickley: AdBlue in the Diesel Tank? Leave It Off
With AdBlue in the diesel tank, your ignition remains off and so does the engine. In plain terms, AdBlue is simply urea in water. Unlike fuel, it neither burns nor blends, and nothing happens till your motor sucks it round. A drain and a thorough flush, done where your car is in Bickley, is usually what AdBlue in a diesel tank needs — if it's caught before your motor has been run. Before you do anything else, phone 0333 366 0103.
AdBlue in the diesel tank around Bickley: the first few minutes
Do:
- Keys out — then no one can switch anything on.
- Put your hazards on if you're at all close to moving traffic.
- So you can give us which fluid it was and about what quantity, keep the till receipt or the empty bottle.
- The van finds you quickest with a postcode starting BR1 2, or simply the name of a street nearby, and so call from the spot.
Not to do:
- Not even briefly, and not to shift the vehicle: the engine remains off.
- Plenty of diesels power their fuel pump the instant the ignition goes on, and so leave the vehicle off.
- Pouring in extra diesel doesn't help: AdBlue settles out instead of thinning.
- Any driving at all is to be avoided, even a short distance down Southborough Road.
- No emptying it yourself, either, at the verge.
Rolling the vehicle away from the pumps is a job for staff to help with, wherever Bickley forecourt you're on, the BP or any other. On that drive, your car stays just as it is.
What AdBlue does in a diesel tank
The engine is not what AdBlue is made for; the exhaust is. From a dedicated tank it goes directly to your exhaust, cleaning what the engine emits. A fuel pump isn't designed to take it, and AdBlue was never intended to go through one.
Inside a diesel tank it acts really differently from fuel. It does not mix in. It's heavier than diesel, and so it sinks and collects at the bottom of your tank, which is where the pickup sucks fuel from. When the system runs, the AdBlue is top of the list to be pulled through. Before then it sits underneath your diesel, and that is how a vehicle topped up in Elmstead last night and not started remains the straightforward case, provided no one turns your key.
It causes two kinds of harm from there. As its water goes, the urea left behind crystallises, and the crystals block filters and settle in fine passages. And it's corrosive to some of the metals a fuel system is made from, and so it keeps running on the parts it reaches for as long as it stays there. Overnight, a vehicle sitting around Bickley with AdBlue through its pipework gets worse; where it is just inside that tank, nothing changes. Diesel protects the high-pressure pump and each injector as it passes; water offers no lubrication, which is a second form of damage.
Petrol or AdBlue in a diesel: why AdBlue is often worse
Fill a diesel with petrol by mistake over at the Harvest Energy, and this issue is thinned fuel. It mixes with your diesel, and whilst it's inside the tank it causes no harm; the harm comes from running the engine on it.
The issue with AdBlue in a diesel is a totally wrong liquid. Not burning, it cannot simply be run through. Whether the car is in Bromley Common or the heart of Bickley, turning it over "to see" costs more with AdBlue than almost any other error, and the flush counts more. The reasons: it will not stay blended, so watering it down fails; and crystals and corrosion survive the following tankful.
As with petrol, there's good news. Never run? Then the AdBlue sits only in that tank, the easiest bit of the whole system to empty, anywhere the vehicle has come to rest across Greater London.
How does AdBlue end up in a diesel tank around Bickley?
It's not on purpose. Plenty of vehicles have the AdBlue cap alongside the diesel inlet, occasionally behind one flap, and mixing them up is simple in poor light. Most of the time it happens with a bottle bought on the way home and poured in on the driveway, not at the pump.
It tends to occur in a couple of familiar ways. The refill is hurried outside St George's, Bickley, Church of England Primary School, after your dash lit up with a warning as the children were dropped in. A bottle is poured in at the end of the day on a drive just off Bickley Road. Else, after dark by Bickley & Widmore Working Men's Club, the vehicle gets refilled by someone opening that flap for the first time.
It crops up the most in a hire car, a brand-new vehicle, a fleet motor, or the other vehicle of a home with one of each fuel types — the vehicles drivers use least. Same mistake, same first response — keep it switched off — anywhere you happen to be in Bickley or the remainder of Greater London.
AdBlue in the diesel tank in Bickley, and the engine started?
In that case, the AdBlue is no longer in the tank. Your filter and pipework have had it pulled through, and any running takes it on to the injection pump and every injector.
Rough running, smoke from the exhaust, lost power, dashboard lights or cutting out: any might appear, perhaps midway across Bickley or returning from Bickley Park Cricket Club. Pull over when it is safe. Turn off. Keep the vehicle off instead of restarting it to check. More of it is pulled through with each start.
On the M25, under 10 miles from Bickley, the first junction is where to leave, and anywhere sensible is where to park — not carrying on.
How far it went matters. A few hundred yards across Bickley to the car park by St. George is a very different job from a run towards London, under 10 miles away, with the AdBlue reaching further into the fuel system with every mile. Let us know roughly how far it had come.
There's more to clean out once your engine has been run, and our technicians do all of it where your car has stopped. Very rarely does it leave long-term damage if it's caught quickly.
What does an AdBlue drain on a diesel involve around Bickley?
Wherever it has stopped around Bickley — a forecourt, a lay-by, a drive, a street beside Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses — our van travels to your car. Three answers decide the job, so before anything else our engineers ask which fluid got in, about what quantity, and whether your engine has run.
Right there, your tank is then drained, and all of the polluted diesel and the urea come out as one. A careful flush counts much more after AdBlue than after petrol, because what remains won't wash away on its own. After that, the fuel filter: cleaned, or changed when it has to be. Then fresh diesel, and then a check of the car. The majority of these jobs are a half-hour visit once our engineers arrive, if your motor has not run. Quiet enough to use outside a house at night, and fine on a busy forecourt, the pumps are explosion-proof.
Priming your system with clean diesel comes last. Starting the car comes next, and then you set off from where the car is parked, by the nearest station or on a driveway in Bickley. Before we leave, our technicians confirm it's running correctly with fresh diesel in. Because the job is done in its entirety where the car is, a garage never comes into it. The insurer is likely to want an engineer's report and your VAT invoice — both yours once the job is done.
About Bickley and where it is
Bickley is a suburban area in the London Borough of Bromley, situated approximately 10 miles southeast of central London. Bickley sits at an elevation of around 75 metres, with its detached housing stock reflecting the area's character. Bickley is bordered by nearby places such as Widmore, Southborough, and Sundridge, and is home to a population of around 4203 residents. Bickley remains a predominantly residential community with a mix of local amenities and commuter links to London.
Bickley and Greater London: AdBlue drains across the area
Our vans that answer AdBlue call-outs in Bickley also cover the places round it, Widmore, Southborough and Sundridge among them, and most of Greater London beyond, across the BR postcode area. Close to a boundary, or anywhere awkward to explain? Checking is better than guessing, and so phone.
No moving is needed. In Bickley, a residential suburb, a mobile service works: the car is emptied on the spot, be it on a drive, a residential street, a car park or a filling station.
What AdBlue in a diesel tank costs to put right in Bickley
Not one flat price could be honest, since each job differs. What shifts the cost is, first of all, whether the engine has been running and for how long; then how much AdBlue was put in; and after that where the car is and whether a van can reach it safely, which is easier on an open drive than in a tight spot behind Chislehurst Caves.
What got in, how much, plus if it ran: every Bickley enquiry opens by asking precisely that, before any quote, not afterwards. Their answers shrink the range right down to a single figure.
Before anyone sets off, you are told our quote on the phone. And payment is on the day, card or over the phone, with nothing in advance. While our engineer is travelling, check your policy: many cover misfuelling.
In Bickley and still alongside your car?
Then, the most helpful thing to do with the vehicle is to not touch it. Ignition off, engine off, keys out. Call 0333 366 0103 then tell us it's AdBlue, about how much, and whether it's run. Petrol in Diesel takes it from there, in Bickley or anywhere across Greater London.